Religious extremists who will never want to end discrimination in Massachusetts will go after anyone, not just transgender people

By: Deja Nicole Greenlaw*/TRT Columnist—

In the November elections, there will be a question 3 on the Massachusetts ballot, which involves public accommodations rights for transgender people. Please get out and vote “yes” on question 3 and end discrimination in the state.

The people pushing the “no” vote are mostly religious extremists who want to discriminate against trans people. They are using undocumented and fabricated fears of visions of dangerous men in the women’s bathroom to try to scare folks into voting “no.” The opposition’s sole basis for voting “no” is truly based on promoting fear and scaring people. They have no hard data or proofof any problems, it’s all misleading fabrications. Yes, they are lying. They are plain and simply lying.

Many states already have laws protecting trans people in public accommodations. Some laws have been on the books for several years already and there have not been any problems. As a matter of fact, the Massachusetts Public Accommodations rights for trans people went into effect in 2016, and there have not been any problems right here in the Bay State.

Why is the opposition doing this? I am not them, so I cannot fully answer for them, but from what I see, I believe that they want to control trans people. It appears that they want to control where trans people can and cannot go in public, while everyone else may go wherever they please. This is outright discrimination against trans people. If the opposition somehow gets enough “no” votes to end trans peoples’ public accommodations rights, I don’t think that’ll be the end of it. I believe that they do have an agenda. Next, I can see them going after the right for private businesses to discriminate against serving LGBTQIA folks. If they can get that right to discriminate, don’t be surprised if they’ll try to end same-sex marriage too.

These are very misguided people who probably think that they are on a mission from God and are doing God’s work. What they are really doing is sowing and cultivating the seeds of authoritarianism by taking away the rights of transgender Americans. You cannot take away the rights of any Americans. In my view, these folks are anti-American and are a threat to our nation. They need to be stopped. We need to save America from the grasp of these misguided and, frankly, bigoted folks. We can do it with enough “yes” votes on Question 3.

Please, note that the opposition is not all religious folk. There are many religions that fully support trans public accommodations rights and there are many, many religious folks who fully support us in our quest to keep our rights. I thank these people from the bottom of my heart. Who I am referring to as the opposition are the extremist religious folks? They are the real threat to America.

We can also help fight these extremist folks by living openly and telling our stories in public. Some people may never knowingly have met a trans person and if they did meet one, they might be able to understand our situation more clearly. This is where living openly and proudly will help our cause. There are many trans folks who do live openly and proudly, and they tell their stories and let cisgender folks know what the facts are and what the situation truly is. This is what we need, to get our stories out so people can hear us and understand that we’re just as they are. I realize that some trans folks want to live under the radar and out of the public eye, but this is a time to step up into the public eye, face the opposition head on and defend our freedom. I’m asking all trans folks and allies to talk to cisgender folks and tell them our trans stories and ask them to vote yes on Question 3. Our lives do matter and so does our freedom.

*Deja Nicole Greenlaw is retired from 3M and has 3 children and two grandchildren. She can be contacted at [email protected].